Nikki Pinkard’s Murder linked to Giovanni Lauriano’s Homicide

No sooner had the bullet-riddled body of Giovanni Lauriano been retrieved from mile 17 than another man, his street rival in fact, Nikki Pinkard, 24, was viciously shot dead, literally just hours later around 9:00 on Sunday night.  Pinkard had just returned home with his girlfriend and one of her relatives from a store and was on Jasmine Street in front of her relatives’ house when someone shot him dead. The armed masked man who shot him was reportedly dressed in full black and rode off on a bicycle. The bullets penetrated the right side of his chest, left jaw and neck.  The slug to the neck was what caused him to lose too much blood to survive to the operating theatre.  Some say Pinkard was killed because he was in the neighbourhood of the rival gang. But Pinkard was no stranger to the area because it was a location, according to relatives, that he often visited due to his girlfriend.

Pinkard, also known as Biggs, was a member of the George Street gang.  Many believe that his killing was the result of the murder of Lauriano, with whom Pinkard had had a long-standing dispute.  But his relatives have said that it was unlikely that Pinkard could have been involved in any such murder because for most of that night he was in communication with his mother.

Like his late rival, Lauriano, Pinkard also was no saint.  He was charged in June of 2008 along with two other youths after Police found him in possession of half a pound of a plastic explosive as deadly as C4, which is among the deadliest explosives known.

As in the murder of Lauriano, Police have made no arrests.

| | | | | |